Mexican women are aware of the risks involved when they cross the U.S. border illegally.

But now a large number of them are taking contraceptive pills to prevent unwanted pregnancies knowing that the possibility exists that they might be raped on their journey to the United States.

“We know of cases of women who take these measures when they are on the border, given that in Mexico they don’t require a medical prescription to buy contraceptive pills,” Anna Ochoa O’Leary, a professor in the Department of Mexican American Studies and a member of the Binational Migration Institute at the University of Arizona, told Efe.